B.C. woman nets highest fine possible speeding across Alberta

Driver clocked doing 215 km/h claims she was "excited" to see a friend during a soon-to-end vacation

Cars go speeding by an intersection in this file photo.Brent Foster/National Post

A British Columbia woman who was caught driving 215 kilometres an hour on a northern Alberta highway has been given the maximum fine for speeding that any provincial court in the province can hand down.

RCMP say Samantha Bookey, who is 30 and a resident of Aldergrove in the Lower Mainland, was ordered to pay $2,300 by a justice of the peace in Boyle provincial court on Tuesday.

Court heard Bookey was northbound in her Acura TL on Highway 63 on Aug. 14, 2017, when police radar tagged her going 105 km/h over the legal limit.

Police say she told an officer who stopped her that she was in a hurry because she was going to Fort McMurray and was excited about nearing the end of her trip.

Mounties also say that during the traffic stop, officers learned of a complaint about the same car being driven fast and illegally passing other vehicles close to a school not long before Bookey was pulled over.

She has one year to pay the fine and faces the possibility of 25 days in jail if she fails to meet the deadline.

“She stated that the reason she was speeding was because she was excited about visiting her friend in Fort McMurray and that she was getting close,” said Const. Paul Banks, an RCMP spokesman.

Banks said the woman was alone and on a divided, four-lane stretch of highway when she was stopped around dusk.

Bookey was given a court summons, which is issued for speeding offences of more than 50 km/h over the limit. The sentence was handed down after she was convicted at a trial she did not attend.

Banks said the speed Bookey was going is not something police see frequently on Highway 63, which carries heavy loads of traffic between Edmonton and Fort McMurray.

He said improvements to the road in recent years, including double-lanes on vast stretches, have improved safety, but there’s no justification for speeding, especially since it reduces a driver’s reaction time.

“Any time you’re speeding, regardless of whether you’re on a divided, four-lane highway, it’s still a danger.”